Melt processable polyacrylonitrile copolymer precursors for carbon fibers: Rheological, thermal, and mechanical properties

Abstract

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) copolymers containing varying amounts of methyl acrylate (MA), P(AN-co-MA),were synthesized as a melt-spinnable precursor of carbon fibers. The rheological properties of P(AN-co-MA) with MA content of 15 mol% at 190 C proved to be suitable for melt-spinning and the PAN fiber was spun from an extruder. In order to prevent remelting and fusion of thefibers in the stabilization process, electron-beam irradiation of over 1500 kGy was used and the melt-spun PAN fibers were successfully converted to stabilized PAN fibers by thermal treatment up to 250 C. Finally, carbon fibers (CFs) were produced by pyrolysis of the stabilized PANfibers. The mechanical properties of the resulting-CFs were evaluated

the tensile strength, tensile modulus, and elongation at break were 1.37 0.2 GPa, 110 11.1 GPa, and 1.27 0.28%, respectively. These results suggest the possibility of utilizing meltspinning as a cost-efficient method for fabrication of carbon fibers.